SINGLETON DRONES ON ABOUT MATTERS CULTURAL and/or SOCIAL and/or POLITICAL
A Retired Old Duffer's Blog Spot

THE TWO FACES OF ILLINOIS POLITICS
August 1, 2008

First, let it be said that I am an immigrant to Illinois. In August 1970, having just completed graduate school and secured an academic position, I packed all of my belongings and drove from Los Angeles, California to Evanston, Illinois. With the exception of four years in that pleasant suburb just north of the Windy City I have spent the balance of my thirty-eight years in Illinois as a resident of Chicago. I call myself an "immigrant" because I have frequently been informed by Chicago natives that I am, and will always be, something of an outsider. This claim is most often made whenever I have expressed a combination of astonishment and humor about the politics of this city and state. Thus, I need to insert the following public service announcement:

CHICAGO AND ILLINOIS CHAUVINISTS, find something else to read. The rest of this blog will only irritate you.

I came to Illinois with two radically different views of politics in the state.

Like every specialist in American History, I had studied the career of Stephen A. Douglas, "The Little Giant." Douglas seemed to embody an unfortunate combination of organizational genius and duplicitous dealing, mixed with an unrelenting populism. It seemed to set a tone for some in the Prairie State. I had also studied the sordid history of politics in Chicago. The cast of characters including "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, convinced me that Damon Runyon should have chosen Chicago rather the Brooklyn for the setting of his tales. A visit to Chicago in 1968 to express my dissent introduced me to the politics of Mayor Richard J. Daly. After spending the night as the guest of the city as a result of exercising my constitutional freedom, the Damon Runyonesque charm faded. (I swore when I left Chicago for my home in Los Angeles that I would never, ever return to this city again. Well, at least not for two years.)

On the other hand, it was an Illinois politician, Adlai Stevenson II, who captured my attention during the 1952 presidential campaign. I was eleven. Stevenson drew me into some sense of civic involvement and made me aware that I was by disposition a liberal. Although I am a life-long Democrat, I was also drawn in my teen years and in my 20s to the Republican Everett Dirksen. Behind both of these exemplars I saw the towering figure of Abraham Lincoln.

Both of these perspectives accompanied me as I drove more than half way across a continent to my new home.

I was twenty-nine when I arrived in my new home. Two months later I turned thirty. Shortly after that landmark birthday the headlines in the Chicago Tribune announced the recently deceased Illinois Secretary of State left behind $800,000 in currency packed in shoe boxes, briefcases, and strongboxes. Daly was still Mayor of Chicago, and would continue in office until his death in 1976. Nothing during that six years reversed my initial impression of him. Then there is the procession from the Governor's Mansion to prison from Democrat Otto Kerner to Republican George Ryan. This less than idyllic vision is underscored by the current spectacle of the deadlocked state political machinery caught in a vice between the Democratic Governor Rod Blagojavich and the Democratic legislative leadership (anything wrong with this picture?) and the war between the Democratic Governor and the Democratic Mayor of Chicago (anything wrong with this picture). With this sort of party discipline, who needs a loyal opposition?

On the other hand, there have been consistent signs of hope over the past four decades. Paul Simon was a Democrat in the tradition of Adlai Stevenson that a Dirksen Republican could like. He set a high standard for integrity and effectiveness in public life. Republican James Edgar has impressed me more than any other Governor of this state since I moved here in 1970. Democrat Jesse White has an remarkable record as an exemplary community leader, a legislator, and an administrator at the County and State levels. Democrat Lisa Madigan, both as a legislator and as a Attorney General, is an impressive public servant. Democrat Barak Obama, with an impressive background in community activism, has burst forth on the national political scene with a refreshing intelligence and enthusiasm, and a remarkably broad understanding of both domestic and global issues.

On balance, I'll take the good, which is very very good, with the bad, which is sometimes amusing, in Illinois politics. Among the very very good of those still active, I'll put Jesse White, Lisa Madigan and Barak Obama up against any three public servants from any other state and be certain of at least a draw.

And, yes, in case there is any doubt, I hope to see Barak Obama as the third Illinois resident to become President of the United States, joining Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. If so, he'll stand far closer to Lincoln. Grant can join those representing the other vision of Illinois politics.

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